• No results found

The relation between ethnicity and reading abilities in Dutch adolescents

N/A
N/A
Protected

Academic year: 2021

Share "The relation between ethnicity and reading abilities in Dutch adolescents"

Copied!
23
0
0

Bezig met laden.... (Bekijk nu de volledige tekst)

Hele tekst

(1)

Bachelorthese Klinische Ontwikkelingspsychologie

The Relation between Ethnicity and Reading Abilities in Dutch Adolescents

Julia Tunderman

Student ID: 6143938 Bachelor project

Supervisor: Gorka Fraga González Universiteit van Amsterdam 24 April 2015

(2)

Abstract

This study focused on the relation between ethnicity and reading abilities in adolescents in their first year of secondary school (7th grade) in the Netherlands. Reading abilities have been shown to vary across ethnic groups. Several aspects of literacy were assessed and students were asked about their ethnicity. Three groups were formed based on the students' ethnic background: a Mediterranean group (Moroccan and Turkish students), an ex-colonial group (Surinamese and Antillean students) and a Dutch group. A MANOVA was performed (N = 83), showing

significant results for ethnicity, especially for reading comprehension and vocabulary. The findings show that a student’s ethnicity can negatively influence their reading abilities. This can affect their academic career and extra support should be provided if necessary.

(3)

Introduction

The Netherlands is becoming more and more ethnically diverse. The immigrant population is growing steadily, with Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, and Antillean majorities amongst the minorities (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2015). The growing diversity causes changes in a variety of social settings, one of which is the composition of school classes

(Veerman, Werfhorst, & Dronkers, 2013). Differences in school achievement have been found (de Winden, 2011), and it is thus far unclear why these differences exist. Empirical evidence suggests that reading is an important factor in determining academic success in life (Nitardy, Duke, Pettingell, & Borowsky, 2014), and students with a different ethnic background have been found to experience difficulties with this (Overmaat, Roeleveld, & Ledoux, 2000; Scheele, Leseman, & Mayo, 2009). It is possible that students with different ethnicities than Dutch do not have the same language and reading skills as their Dutch peers, which could affect their academic careers. To research this further, the current study will focus on reading abilities in an ethnically diverse sample of middle level education students.

Exposure to language has been proven to predict a child’s command of that particular language later in life (Drake, 2014; Overmaat et al., 2000; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2014; Van Steensel, 2006). A child can be exposed to spoken and written language, both of which are important for language development (Drake, 2014; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2014; Van Steensel, 2006). Exposure to spoken language happens both at home and in the social situations the child experiences. Dutch children are presumably constantly exposed to Dutch through their parents and the social interactions they are brought into. Children from immigrant families, however, are more likely to be exposed to their mother language at home and in social situations, especially if they live in an area with a lot of people of the same origin (Drake, 2014; Kordes, Bolsinova,

(4)

Limpens, & Stolwijk, 2012). Less frequent exposure will likely negatively affect their command of Dutch (Netten, Voeten, Droop, & Verhoeven, 2014; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2014). A similar asymmetry between ethnic groups can be expected for exposure to written language. Dutch children have frequent access to Dutch children’s books, whereas immigrant children might experience less exposure to such reading materials, if they are available to them at all (Broeder & Stokmans, 2012; Veerman et al., 2013).

Studies have found differences in the reading skills of children from immigrant families, where the difference in reading comprehension is most noticeable (Verhoeven & Vermeer, 2006). The lower reading comprehension skills can be explained using a phenomenon generally referred to as the Matthew Effect (Stanovich, 1986). It is based on the principle of “the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer”, suggesting that good readers will keep improving their reading abilities through frequent reading. The opposite is thought to be true for poor readers. The phenomenon suggests a circular movement where vocabulary is often seen as a starting point that enables someone to understand a text. This will probably make the reader enjoy the activity and do it more frequently, causing the person to become better at reading. Through frequent reading and much exposure, a person’s vocabulary will likely be enlarged and will, in effect, set the whole process in motion again (Becker, McElvany, & Kortenbruck, 2010; Froiland & Oros, 2014; Mol & Bus, 2011). Since children from immigrant families do not undergo the same exposure to Dutch as their Dutch peers, the entire process could stagnate and in turn negatively affect their academic career.

Individual reading abilities are often collectively referred to as literacy. This concept can be defined as “the ability to understand, use and reflect on written texts in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society”

(5)

(Becker et al., 2010). In the current study, literacy is thought to consist of reading fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and reading motivation and attitude. First of all, reading fluency refers to the speed at which someone is able to read words accurately (Becker et al., 2010). Second, reading comprehension is concerned with understanding what one reads and being able to extract information from a text. The third aspect is vocabulary, the size of which can vary immensely across ethnicities (Becker et al., 2010). Finally, reading motivation and attitude can also be seen as aspects of literacy. Reading motivation has to do with a person’s goals, values, and beliefs with regard to certain topics of texts or the outcomes of reading (Becker et al., 2010). Here, a further distinction can be made between intrinsic motivation, where a person reads because she or he wants to or finds it enjoyable, and extrinsic motivation, which refers to situations in which someone reads because they are told to do so or because they want a reward (Froiland & Oros, 2014). Reading attitude quite literally refers to a person’s attitude toward reading. A positive attitude can cause an increase in reading behaviour and the opposite holds for a negative attitude (Baker & Wigfield, 1999; Petscher, 2010).

Since good reading abilities play such a vital role in someone’s academic, social, and general life success (Nitardy et al., 2014; Overmaat et al., 2000), much research has been conducted to gain more insight into the reading skills of children in ethnically diverse samples. Most of these studies (Broeder & Stokmans, 2012), however, have focused on children in

primary school, because early language skills can predict future academic achievement (Froiland & Oros, 2014). In these studies, positive effects have been found in bilingual children with regards to reading development (Sparks, Patton, Ganschow, Humbach, & Javorsky, 2008). This means, however, that little is known about secondary school students. Differences in language abilities may have been diminished after primary school, but in order to achieve certainty, and to

(6)

explore the possibility that reading abilities contribute to academic achievement, the current study was conducted. The present study focused on the relation between ethnicity and reading abilities in students in their first year of middle level secondary school (7th grade). A different ethnic background than Dutch was hypothesised to have a negative influence on a student’s reading abilities. In order to conduct this study, three middle level secondary schools in Amsterdam were visited by professionals from the IWAL institute, a national institute for dyslexia. Based on previous research, it was expected that Dutch students would outperform their peers with other ethnic backgrounds on the reading tests used in this study.

Methods

Participants

A total number of 215 students were recruited to participate in this study. Three preparatory middle-level vocational education schools (VMBO; Voorbereidend Middelbaar Beroepsonderwijs) gave permission to collect data at their school. They were situated in different parts of Amsterdam which contributed to the ethnic diversity in the sample. Participating students had a mean age1 of 14.73, SD = 1.13 and were all in their first year. The sample consisted of 123 boys and 92 girls. The schools reported that the students they accommodate are generally from families with a low socioeconomic status (SES). There were no special exclusion criteria for participation. Students did not receive any reward for their cooperation.

For this study, schools in Amsterdam that were expected to accommodate students from families with low SES were approached by the IWAL institute. Students were given an

information letter and a passive informed consent form that provided them and their parents with

(7)

all the necessary information. Students and parents could object to participation by returning the consent form. The current study was part of a larger project executed by IWAL. This project, #BOOK, had been approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Amsterdam in 2014. Several days of data collection have taken place at different school to assess the effectiveness of a reading based program to improve reading abilities in adolescents. The data used in this study were gathered in September 2014.

Materials

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension was measured with the Flemish Test for Reading Comprehension (VTBL; Vlaamse Test voor Begrijpend Lezen; Van Vreckem, Desoete, De Paepe, & Van Hove, 2010). The purpose of this test is to assess a student’s understanding of a text and ability to extract information from it. Students receive a text and are asked to take their time to read it thoroughly. After they finish reading, the text is taken away and the students are given two multiple choice questions that test their memory. Afterwards, the students receive the text again along with 24 multiple choice questions that test the student’s understanding of the text. An example is: “Where does the story take place?”. Every correct answer is granted one point (Van Vreckem et al., 2010). In order to make sure that all the students were able to complete the entire test, the text students were given to read was at a slightly lower level than the level they are presumed to have reached. Since the current study focuses on reading comprehension, the memory questions are not included in the analysis.

(8)

Reading Motivation and Reading Attitude

The Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997) is a questionnaire developed to assess the degree in which someone is motivated to read. The original test is relatively long, which is why a shortened version of the test consisting of 33 items was used in this study. The items can be sorted into six subscales: curiosity and interest, preference for genre, preference for challenge, reading level, reading in a social context, and task motivation. The items were rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (disagree a lot) to 4 (agree a lot). A

student’s total score falls between 33 and 132, with a higher score indicating that the student is more motivated to read.

The Self-Regulation Questionnaire-Reading Motivation (SRQ; De Naeghel, Van Keer, Vansteenkiste, & Rosseel, 2012) is similar to the MRQ, but measures motivation for reading for recreational purposes and for academic purposes. Recreational reading is described as the reading a person does because they enjoy it. Academic reading, on the other hand, is reading that needs to be done for school or because someone else has assigned it. Both scales consist of 24 items, applied to either recreational or academic purposes and are rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (agree a lot) to 5 (disagree a lot). This results in a total score of 24 to 120 per scale, where a lower score means more motivation for reading.

Vocabulary

To assess the level of the students’ vocabulary, the National Intelligence test for

Education level (NIO; Nederlandse Intelligentietest voor Onderwijsniveau; Van Dijk & Tellegen, 2004) was used. The test usually measures students’ intelligence levels, but consists of several subtests, of which the “Synonyms” subtest was used in this study. It consists of thirty items with three example items. Students are presented with words printed in boldface and are given five

(9)

words that could be a synonym of that first word. The student has to identify and mark the word that means the same as the original word. Every correct answer is scored with one point, which adds up to a maximum score of 30. The higher the score, the larger a student’s vocabulary.

Reading Fluency

In order to gain insight in the reading fluency of the individual students, the One-Minute-Test (EMT; Een-Minuut-One-Minute-Test; Brus & Voeten, 1979) was administered. This test consists of a sheet with four rows of words, adding up to a total of 116. The words increase in their level of difficulty. The student is asked to read aloud as many of the words as possible, starting at the top left and finishing at the bottom right. After one minute, the student is asked to stop. For every word that is read correctly, one point is assigned, making the maximum score 116. A higher score means that a student is good at reading words quickly.

Ethnicity

Students were asked to answer three questions about their ethnic background. These questions asked about the country of origin of the student, their mother and their father. A number of frequent nationalities were given (e.g. the Netherlands, Morocco, Turkey, etc.), but students could fill in a different country if their country of origin was not listed.

Procedure

The three VMBO schools were visited sequentially on separate days by trained

professionals from the IWAL institute. Individual appointments for each class were made with the teachers to make sure testing did not interfere too much with the normal curriculum. The data for one class were gathered during the students’ regular Dutch class. Instead of following the curriculum, the students filled out all the questionnaires and tests, the order of which was

(10)

different in every class. The assessment was completed within the hour, with most students finishing early after about 45 minutes. After having finished the tests, students were taken to a separate room to do the EMT with one of the professionals. The students returned to their normal timetables and schoolwork after the testing had finished.

Analysis

The current study’s goal is to investigate whether there is a relation between ethnicity and reading abilities. For this reason, a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) will be

performed with the students’ scores on the VTBL, MRQ, SRQ, NIO, and EMT as the dependent variables and the students’ ethnicity as the independent variable. The variables are all related to each other, which is why a MANOVA was chosen as opposed to several independent ANOVAs (Field, 2013).

Since the sample resulted in a very diverse list of countries of origin, three groups were formed and analysed. These groups consisted of the countries which were most frequently listed by the students as the country of origin of their mother. Many students were born in the

Netherlands to parents from different origin, and it is unlikely that the home language of these families is Dutch (Kordes et al., 2012). Since mothers generally exert the most influence on a child’s language development (Verhoeven & Vermeer, 2006), the mother’s country of origin was selected as a student’s ethnicity.

Groups were formed based most frequently listed countries and were divided similarly as in Verhoeven and Vermeer’s study (2006). The first group is the Mediterranean group, which consists of Moroccan and Turkish students. The second group is the Ex-Colonial group,

consisting of Surinamese and Antillean students. The third group is the Dutch group. Data from students with different ethnicities were not used in the analysis. Using the three selected groups, a

(11)

thorough analysis will be possible and specific results for particular groups will hopefully come forward.

Results

The results for the country of origin were very diverse, as can be seen in Table 1. Exploratory analyses indicated that there were no significant results per country of origin, which is why three groups were formed and used in the analyses. In order to compare the data from these three groups to each other, a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was performed. Not every student in the three selected groups filled out all the tests, which means that the sample consisted of 83 students: 31 in the Mediterranean group, 21 in the ex-colonial group, and 31 in the Dutch group. The assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance were not violated. Table 2 reports the descriptive statistics for the entire sample on all the tests. The results of the MANOVA show that, using Wilk’s lambda, there was a clear effect of country of origin: Ʌ = 0.57, F(12, 144) = 3.84, p < .05, partial ɳ² = .240. This result indicates that country of origin has a significant influence on students’ performance. This is a very

interesting result, but to extract more specific information, the scores of the individual tests in the MANOVA were analysed further.

Table 1

Table with Countries of Origin of the Students in the Entire Sample

Country of Origin Number of Children Antilles 7 Bosnia 2 Bulgaria 3 Ecuador 2 Egypt 4 France 2 Germany 2 Ghana 7 Missing 24 Morocco 40 Netherlands 47 Nigeria 2 Other¹ 25 Pakistan 4 Portugal 2 Surinam 24 Turkey 23

¹ Countries only one child originated from: Afghanistan, Angola, Australia, Brazil, Columbia, Congo, Cuba, Denmark, England, Eritrea, Greece, Guinea, Guyana, India, Iraq, Lithuania, Rumania, Spain, Tibet, Sweden.

(12)

First of all, significant results were found for reading comprehension and vocabulary. The reading comprehension test gave the following result: F(2, 77) = 11.57, p < .001, partial ɳ² = .231. Similar results were found for the vocabulary test: F(2, 77) = 6.63, p = .002, partial ɳ² = .147. It can thus be concluded that ethnicity can have an influence on a student’s reading comprehension and vocabulary. The effect of ethnicity on reading fluency just fell short of significance: F(2, 77) = 2.81, p = .067, partial ɳ² = .068, indicating that reading fluency is to some extent influenced by ethnicity. The results for the tests for reading motivation and attitude were all non-significant with ps > .290. This indicates that ethnicity does not significantly predict a person’s reading motivation or attitude. Having found the significant results for reading

comprehension and vocabulary, it is interesting to take a closer look at how the three groups score on these tests to see where the largest differences can be found.

Table 2

Descriptive Statistics for MANOVA per Ethnicity (N=83)

Mediterranean N = 31 M(SD) Ex-Colonial N = 21 M(SD) Dutch N = 31 M(SD) Gender ratio (f:m) 12:19 12:9 16:15 Age (years) 14.58(0.77) 14.33(0.48) 14.23(0.56) Reading Comprehension 8.65(3.6) 12.90(4.11) 13.48(4.46) Vocabulary 9.42(2.64) 10.57(4.13) 12.48(3.20) Reading Fluency 76.71(10.20) 83.43(12.420 ) 75.68(12.98) Reading Motivation (MRQ) 78.67(15.28) 84.33(24.21) 77.70(17.46) Reading Attitude Recreational (SRQ) 82.95(11.63) 87.08(26.57) 84.26(19.55) Reading Attitude Academic (SRQ) 74.01(14.99) 84.04(19.25) 77.45(20.72)

(13)

A One-Way ANOVA with added contrasts between the groups was performed to gain insight in the differences in test scores for reading comprehension and vocabulary for the three groups. The assumption for homogeneity was met. Descriptive statistics for the three groups are

provided in Table 3. First, the Mediterranean and ex-colonial

group were compared to the Dutch group. The results for reading comprehension were t(122) = -1.81, p = .073, which indicates that the two ethnic groups together do not significantly influence a student’s reading comprehension. Further analysis with contrasts between these two ethnic

groups yielded the following results: t(122) = 2.88, p = .005. This indicates that the

Mediterranean group scored significantly lower on the reading comprehension test than the ex-colonial group. In comparison to the Dutch group, the Mediterranean group scored significantly lower: t(122) = -3.38, p < .05, but no such results were found for the ex-colonial group. Students in the Mediterranean group apparently experience a negative effect of their country of origin when it comes to reading comprehension.

The same comparisons were done for vocabulary, which resulted in t(135) = -2.88, p = .005, indicating that both the Mediterranean and ex-colonial group performed worse than the

Figure 1Mean Scores for Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension per Group

Note. Significant results for Vocabulary between the Mediterranean and ex-colonial

groups versus Dutch group, and between the Mediterranean and ex-colonial group. For Reading Comprehension significant results were found for Mediterranean versus ex-colonial group and Mediterranean group versus Dutch group.

(14)

Dutch group. Further analysis between the Mediterranean and ex-colonial group also yielded significant results: t(135) = 2.35, p = .020. It is interesting to find that vocabulary is significantly different between the Mediterranean and ex-colonial group. Apparently the Mediterranean group experiences more interference from their ethnic background than the ex-colonial group. Since the difference in reading comprehension was only significant for the Mediterranean group, the question is raised whether vocabulary has an influence on reading comprehension.

With Stanovich’s Matthew effect in mind, an ANCOVA was performed to analyse any mediation of vocabulary on reading comprehension for all three groups used in this sample. Table 3

Descriptive Statistics On Reading Skills per Ethnicity (N=130)

Mediterranean N = 62 M(SD) Ex-Colonial N = 31 M(SD) Dutch N = 47 M(SD) Gender ratio (f:m) 25:37 15:16 21:26 Age (years)1 15(1) 14(1) 14(0) Reading Comprehension2 10(4) 13(4) 13(5) Vocabulary3 9.00(3.00) 11(4) 12(3) Reading Fluency4 77(10) 82(12) 75(13) Reading Motivation (MRQ)5 78(20) 82(23) 72(19) Reading Attitude Recreational (SRQ)6 83.73(17.90) 83.19(25.03) 84.88(19.62)

Reading Attitude Academic (SRQ)7 79.40(17.70) 85.95(19.72) 77.50(21.53)

Note. 1 Data missing for 4 participants: NM = 58, ND=43. 2 Data missing for 8, 4, and 3 participants: NM = 54,

NE = 27, ND = 44. 3 Data missing for 2 participants: NM = 60. 4 Data missing for 10, 3, and 1 participants: NM =

52, NE = 28, ND = 46. 5

Data missing for 8, 3, and 2 participants: NM = 54, NE = 28, ND = 45. 6

Data missing for 10, 2, and 12 participants: NM = 52, NE = 29, ND = 35.

7

Data missing for 12, 4, and 13 participants: NM = 50,

NE = 27, ND = 34. M = Mediterranean; E= Ex-colonial; D= Dutch. The Mediterranean group included students

(15)

Vocabulary was controlled for by adding it as the covariate in the analysis. Reading comprehension was the dependent variable and ethnicity the independent variable. The assumption for homogeneity was met. The ANCOVA yielded significant results for ethnicity after controlling for vocabulary: F(2, 121) = 3.56, p = .032, indicating that someone’s vocabulary influences that person’s reading comprehension in this sample2. A regression analysis revealed that this is only significantly the case for the Dutch students: β = .59, t(42) = 4.71, p < .05, with the other two groups yielding ps > .05.

Finally, exploratory analyses for gender effects were performed to see if this rendered any significant results. The MANOVA showed no such results for gender using Wilk’s lambda: Ʌ = 0.915, F(6, 72) = 1.111, p = .365, ɳ² = .085.

Discussion and Conclusion

The current study has looked at the relation between ethnicity and reading abilities for students in 7th grade middle level education. Significant results in line with the expectations were found for reading comprehension and vocabulary, where Dutch students outperformed both the Mediterranean and ex-colonial group. A closer look at these results showed that the

Mediterranean group performed the worst on the reading comprehension test compared to both the ex-colonial group and the Dutch group. The results were in line with previous findings. With regards to vocabulary, all three groups differed from each other, with the Mediterranean group again scoring lowest of the three. A covariate analysis with all three groups suggested that there was a significant influence of vocabulary on the reading comprehension. Further analysis

revealed, however, that this path was only significant for the Dutch group. No significant results

2

The same analysis was also performed with equal group sizes which yielded similar significant results, F(2,75) = 7.98, p < .05, meaning that the result found is not due to difference in group size.

(16)

were found for reading fluency, and reading motivation and attitude. Earlier findings for gender differences were not replicated in the current study.

The reported findings point to a potential disadvantage for students with a Moroccan or Turkish background. They perform significantly worse on the reading comprehension and vocabulary tests. This could in turn mean that they perform at a lower level than would be expected of them (Scheele et al., 2009). Even though the current study shows no influence of vocabulary on reading comprehension for the Mediterranean group, a smaller vocabulary could contribute to worse reading performance in adolescents (Froiland & Oros, 2014). Interestingly, no similar results were found for the ex-colonial group, consisting of Surinamese and Antillean students. When the scores of the vocabulary test are taken into consideration, the Mediterranean group scored significantly lower than the ex-colonial group. This is likely due to the language spoken at home, where it can be assumed that students from the ex-colonial group have been exposed to the Dutch language more than their Moroccan or Turkish peers (Kordes et al., 2012).

The aforementioned results imply that the students from ethnic minorities may have difficulties with reading, which can affect their (academic) careers. Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills necessary for a successful academic career in the Netherlands, since most of the curriculum consists of reading books and texts and extracting necessary and useful information from them. Keeping in mind that early exposure to a language influences the command of that language at a later age (Netten et al., 2014; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2014), students who speak a different language at home might need more support in primary school to develop their language and reading skills. Dutch children often only learn one language and do not have to divide their vocabulary over more than one language. It could be the case that students with a different ethnic background have a smaller command of the Dutch language, but

(17)

that they compensate for this with their command of their mother language. This could explain why no significant influence was found for vocabulary for both the Mediterranean and ex-colonial groups. Research has shown that language abilities from a child’s first language can transfer to their second language (Sparks et al., 2008). Since only Dutch vocabulary and reading comprehension was measured, little is known about the students’ reading abilities in their mother language. Future studies could look at the level of language and reading abilities in these

students’ home language to see if it has an effect on their Dutch reading skills.

Despite the interesting and socially important nature of the results, there are a number of limitations to be pointed out. Most importantly, very little was known about the students’ home situations. Other than the country of birth, no further information was asked of the participants. A variety of aspects could be of influence on a child’s language development, such as

socioeconomic status (Scheele et al., 2009), the home language (Sparks et al., 2008), the home literacy environment (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2014; Van Steensel, 2006), how long the student and their family have been in the country (Mol & Bus, 2011), and what kind of previous reading and writing education the student has had (Netten et al., 2014). Since these aspects were not

answered, no causal relation can be established and no definitive areas of influence can be appointed. If, for example, the home language had been known, a more in-depth analysis could have taken place where the different home languages were compared to see whether these exert any influence on the student’s reading performance in secondary school (Scheele et al., 2009; Sparks et al., 2008). A future study should include the variables listed above, in order to be able to pinpoint a more specific cause for the differences in reading abilities found in the present study.

(18)

Another limitation in this study is the group of students that participated. The generalisability of the sample is questionable for two reasons. First of all, the students that participated all attended middle level education schools, which means that the results of this study cannot be generalised for higher level education students. Future research needs to be conducted with these students before conclusions can be drawn about higher level education students. The second reason why these results should be interpreted and generalised with some caution is due to the location of the schools that were visited in this study. Amsterdam is a very ethnically diverse city, which means that the schools there are also more ethnically diverse. Different ethnic compositions can occur in smaller cities or villages, which is why the results from this study can be relevant for the entire country, but should perhaps be replicated with a sample that is more nationally representative.

In order to support students with different ethnic backgrounds in their development of the Dutch language, parents of these children could be given instructions about the importance of exposure to the language. Especially if the family plans to settle down in the Netherlands, the child will go to Dutch schools and will need to develop the necessary language abilities to achieve academic success. Perhaps better language skills will allow these students to reach a higher level of education, so that they have equal opportunities as Dutch students to fulfil their full potential. Reading can also be promoted in schools when students show little interest in the activity. One way this could be done is to assign the students to reading clubs like in project #BOOK (Stoop, Stoop, Carter, & Tijms, 2014). This project has shown positive outcomes on students’ reading comprehension, and reading motivation and attitude.

The current study has rendered some interesting results and has made a first step toward identifying a possible cause for the difference found in school performance and reading abilities

(19)

across ethnic groups in the Netherlands. Much more research is necessary to definitively point to a specific aspect of reading or language development before interventions can be developed or information can be given to parents whose mother language is not Dutch. In the meantime, it seems that students whose parents were not born in the Netherlands could benefit from exposure to Dutch, preferably in written form. Schools, both primary and secondary, could promote reading and encourage students to do this as much as possible. When students are given the opportunity to read more and expand their reading abilities, they might reach their full potential.

References

Baker, L., & Wigfield, A. (1999). Dimensions of Children ’ s Motivation for Reading and Their Relations to Reading Activity and Reading Achievement. Reading Research Quarterly,

34(4), 452–477. doi:10.1598/RRQ.34.4.4

Becker, M., McElvany, N., & Kortenbruck, M. (2010). Intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation as predictors of reading literacy: A longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology,

102(4), 773–785. doi:10.1037/a0020084

Broeder, P., & Stokmans, M. I. A. (2012). Literacy Competences in Cultural Diverse Classrooms: Experiences of Teachers. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 12, 1–18.

Brus, B. T., & Voeten, M. J. M. (1979). Eén-Minuut-Test, vorm A en B: verantwoording en handleiding. Nijmegen; Lisse: Berkhout; Swets Test Publisher.

Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. (2015). Bevolking; generatie, geslacht, leeftijd en herkomstgroepering, 1 januari 2014. Retrieved from

(20)

http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/publication/?VW=T&DM=SLNL&PA=37325&D1=a&D2=0

&D3=0&D4=0&D5=0-4,137,152,220,237&D6=0,4,9,(l-1),l&HD=130605-0936&HDR=G2,G1,G3,T&STB=G4,G5

De Naeghel, J., Van Keer, H., Vansteenkiste, M., & Rosseel, Y. (2012). The Relation Between Elementary Students’ Recreational and Academic Reading Motivation, Reading Frequency, Engagement, and Comprehension: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 104(4), 1006–1021. doi:10.1037/a0027800

De Winden, P. (2011). Steeds meer jongeren volgen hoger onderwijs. Retrieved from

http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/themas/onderwijs/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2011/2011-3422-wm.htm

Drake, T. a. (2014). The Effect of Community Linguistic Isolation on Language-Minority

Student Achievement in High School. Educational Researcher, 43(October 2014), 327–340. doi:10.3102/0013189X14547349

Field, A. (2013). Discoverng Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.

Froiland, J. M., & Oros, E. (2014). Intrinsic motivation, perceived competence and classroom engagement as longitudinal predictors of adolescent reading achievement. Educational

Psychology, 34(2), 119–132. doi:10.1080/01443410.2013.822964

Kordes, J., Bolsinova, M., Limpens, G., & Stolwijk, R. (2012). Resultaten PISA-2012.

Mol, S. E., & Bus, A. G. (2011). To read or not to read: a meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood. Psychological Bulletin, 137(2), 267–296. doi:10.1037/a0021890

(21)

Netten, A., Voeten, M., Droop, M., & Verhoeven, L. (2014). Sociocultural and educational factors for reading literacy decline in the Netherlands in the past decade. Learning and

Individual Differences, 32, 9–18. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2014.02.002

Nitardy, C. M., Duke, N. N., Pettingell, S. L., & Borowsky, I. W. (2014). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Educational Achievement and Aspirations: Findings from a Statewide Survey from 1998 to 2010. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 19, 58–66. doi:10.1007/s10995-014-1495-y

Overmaat, M., Roeleveld, J., & Ledoux, G. (2000). Begrijpend lezen in het basisonderwijs :

invloed van milieu en onderwijs. Retrieved from

http://www.kohnstamminstituut.uva.nl/pdf_documenten/artikelBegrijpendLezen.pdf

Petscher, Y. (2010). A meta-analysis of the relationship between student attitudes towards reading and achievement in reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 33(4), 335–355. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2009.01418.x

Scheele, A. F., Leseman, P. P. M., & Mayo, A. Y. (2009). The home language environment of monolingual and bilingual children and their language proficiency. Applied

Psycholinguistics, 31, 117. doi:10.1017/S0142716409990191

Sénéchal, M., & LeFevre, J. (2014). Parental Involvement in the Development of Children ’ s Reading Skill : A Five-Year Longitudinal Study, 73(2), 445–460.

Sparks, R. L., Patton, J., Ganschow, L., Humbach, N., & Javorsky, J. (2008). Early first-language reading and spelling skills predict later second-language reading and spelling skills. Journal

(22)

Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360–407. doi:10.1598/RRQ.21.4.1

Stoop, M., Stoop, M., Carter, C., & Tijms, J. (2014). Onderzoeksverslag #BOOK: Bibliotherapie

voor jongeren tussen de 12-14 jaar op het VMBO.

Van Dijk, H., & Tellegen, P. J. (2004). NIO Nederlandse Intelligentietest voor Onderwijsniveau: Handleiding en verantwoording. Amsterdam: Boom.

Van Steensel, R. (2006). Relations between socio-cultural factors, the home literacy environment and children’s literacy development in the first years of primary education. Journal of

Research in Reading, 29(4), 367–382. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2006.00301.x

Van Vreckem, C., Desoete, A., De Paepe, L., & Van Hove, H. (2010). VTBL: Vlaamse Test Begrijpend Lezen. Ghent: Acadamia Press.

Veerman, G. M., Werfhorst, H. G. Van De, & Dronkers, J. (2013). Ethnic composition of the class and educational performance in primary education in The Netherlands. Educational

Research and Evaluation: An International Journal on Theory and Practice, 19, 370–401.

doi:10.1080/13803611.2013.788851

Verhoeven, L., & Vermeer, A. (2006). Sociocultural variation in literacy achievement. British

(23)

Wigfield, A., & Guthrie, J. T. (1997). Relations of children’s motivation for reading to the amount and breadth or their reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(3), 420–432. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.89.3.420

Referenties

GERELATEERDE DOCUMENTEN

Het Bronzen Kruis, ingesteld in 1940, wordt toegekend aan Nederlandse militairen, die zich ten behoeve van de Nederlandse Staat door moedig of beleidvol optreden tegen de

Linguistic comprehension: listening comprehension, vocabulary and background knowledge Phonological awareness and Rapid Word Naming..

reading to support comprehension by helping readers to organize, remember, and retrieve information they have read.  This strategy focuses on visualization (creating

In con- trast to the results obtained by McKillop, who reported Pd- (PPh 3 ) 4 to be incapable of catalyzing cross-coupling of chloro- pyrazine with phenyl boronic acid (vide

18 Kommunale troos (mutuum colloquium) is volgens Luther een van die wesenlike verantwoordelikhede wat deur die evangelie self aan die kerk toevertrou word. Troos word ook nie

Geregistre er aan die Hoofposkantoor as 'n Nuu.,blad. Strydom sP Jyfblad. dat di~ hofuitspraak die horlosic vrn. ewabrandnag verbly hom in di e. Is die Vryhcidstatuut

To measure the average performance of mutual fund and to be able to compare this mutual fund performance with the performance of ETFs, we need to estimate the alpha for the mutual

8 The Role of Hypophosphorous Acid on the Synthesis of Tin-Based Organic-Inorganic Hybrids 141 8.1